Applying Improvisation to Leadership, Relationships and Life.

An exercise in improvised storytelling

My experiment for today was to improvise a story based on ten random words from TextFixer’s Random Word Generator. With no preconception of the story I would tell, I decided that I would use one generated word, in order, per sentence, and loop them until the story had some sort of ending. I gave myself the limitation of not using the delete key and only editing for grammar afterward and not for content.

Ethan stepped to the edge of Westwork Inc’s rooftop, his polished wing tip shoes peeking over the street forty floors below. It was three minutes till eight which meant he had three minutes to make a very difficult decision. He glanced at the Westwork illuminated logo three floors below him, its soulless neon shining brightly on the windows of condominiums one street over. Ethan wanted to be elsewhere, anywhere, even home, if it meant escaping his entangled fate. Footsteps sounded like elephants on the metal stairs leading upward to the roof exit. He turned around and faced the door, his adrenaline causing his heart to percuss upon his rib cage as though in wartime. The seconds were stretching as he breathed-in the end he knew was already upon him. He held out a small pistol he had taken from David’s desk drawer, though not ideal, it would speak to his intent. The door opened revealing a stream of armed FBI agents, two of whom he recognized from his last visit to headquarters. As they lined up around him, he made his decision and raised the pistol toward the nearest agent, his face broadening to a freakish grin.

“Ethan, you don’t need to do this” Said one of the more familiar agents “Westwork doesn’t deserve your loyalty.” From his pocket, a chime played on his cell phone indicating it was eight o’clock. Two of the closest gunmen switched on their flashlights brightly illuminating the rain soaked roof. Elsewhere, sounds of a helicopter grew louder though not in sight. He remembered a story about elephants who learned to be helpless when, as babies, their tails were tied to a stake in the ground. Ethan let the gun go limp in his hand as he stepped backward off the ledge, his final contribution to the wartime project, to Westwork inc, and to David. An agent rushed forward to catch him, but it was already too late, and Ethan was already free.